Create an 'Open Device Lab' With Help From LabUp

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Create an 'Open Device Lab' With Help From LabUp

Planning to pay for all those devices? (testing responsive sites with Adobe Shadow). Photo: Adobe

One of the biggest roadblocks to building a website that works well on any device is that you need to test it on, well, every device. Collecting every new device that gains a foothold in the worldwide market is beyond the budget of most web developers, which means we use imperfect methods like emulators or test on a limited set of devices.

But there's a better way – just head to your local Open Device Lab (ODL).

Open Device Labs are places anyone can come and test their websites on dozens of devices. The idea started in Europe, but there are now several Open Device Labs in the U.S. as well. You can check this list of Open Device Labs around the world to see if there's anything nearby.

Nothing near you? That's where the newly launched LabUp! wants to help. LabUp is helping to get even more ODLs up and running. The site aims to be a centralized place for listing open device labs and a resource for anyone looking to start up their own Open Device Lab.

Here's how LabUp! describes itself:

LabUp! is here to help people around the world in establishing nonprofit Open Device Labs which helps others access a large number of mobile devices for testing, leading to an ultimate improvement of the mobile web and app experience both for developers and consumers.

For more info on how you can help, or how to set up your own local Open Device Lab, head on over to LabUp! and be sure to follow @LabUpOrg on Twitter.